[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:01] I'm meeting of the Senior Outreach Services Committee for August 19th, roll call, please.
[0:12] Sure, Kathy Annand, your Diane Michael Bank, your Colleen McCormick, your little pearl.
[0:17] Kathy Lyons, your Jerry Adrienne, our bandower.
[0:22] Okay, thank you.
[0:25] And then we'll go to, I'm going to, let's see, just nobody in the audience and you don't have anyone online.
[0:30] Let me just double check. I don't see anybody. No. So I'm going to go right to approval of the minutes of
[0:37] To i e 15
[0:39] 2026
[0:41] Motion to approve the minute
[0:43] So move second motion made in second to approve all those of favor. Hi. Hi.
[0:49] Post motion carries. I'll abstain because I wasn't.
[0:52] Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[0:57] Okay.
[0:59] Next, we'll be business, item A, review quarter two report for Senior Outreach Services Department.
[1:08] So, this last month, we had a really packed agenda, so we kind of postponed this for a month,
[1:16] so this is for April, May, and June, quarter two report.
[1:21] I put this in the similar format as last time with a few changes, so again, starts with the programs, the program title, the month and the attendance.
[1:33] I highlighted a few different things throughout here that I just wanted to point out.
[1:37] We don't necessarily have to go through line by line with us, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how many things we're doing in a month and what kind of engagement we're getting from that.
[1:50] April was a really busy month for us because that's also volunteer appreciation month.
[1:56] So our department also does the McFarlane Community Service Day.
[2:01] That Spritney Leaves position is part of her position.
[2:05] It's case management and part of it is community outreach coordinator.
[2:11] It's mostly doing that day.
[2:13] We had a really great day for that.
[2:15] again, I was on the 25th of April that coincided with drug take back day and electronics
[2:21] recycling so we are getting a lot of engagement throughout the community for that.
[2:28] So that kept us busy as well as volunteer appreciation month, we do a pretty big event every
[2:36] year for all of the senior outreach volunteers, we have about a hundred volunteers in our
[2:45] This is the second year that we went to the wine house.
[2:49] We have snacks, everyone gets a token for one drink of their choice.
[2:57] And we have door prize and all sorts of fun things.
[3:00] So we got pretty good engagement, 45 people coming for that.
[3:03] So that was great.
[3:06] And then one thing that we did in April that was quite popular.
[3:11] We've never done it before.
[3:12] We had a presenter come from UW,
[3:17] Dink on a UW extension to teach a seven week course
[3:21] called Planning ahead, and that was full.
[3:25] She could only take 20 participants, participants,
[3:29] and it was full at 20, and then we had a wait list of five.
[3:32] So good to know that we'll probably make that an annual class that we teach.
[3:37] And Planning ahead was about just planning for end of life.
[3:40] So things from finances,
[3:45] actually, did any of you attend that?
[3:47] You did, do you want to just share briefly what it was very informative?
[3:51] Like I said, it was about finding a had making sure your finances were in order and
[4:01] everything through the doctor and the doctor was notified of all of your requirements and
[4:07] things like that.
[4:08] So it was, you know, there were seven different chapters, and we went through them and that
[4:14] some more interesting than others, but overall, well done.
[4:19] And there was a book that came with it, you were filling out as you were.
[4:23] And then they also, you know, it was where, you know, with your finances, you could go through
[4:28] and you could list all of your passwords and things like that, but then they were like,
[4:33] well, you know, this is not the safest thing, so they were able to download it and we have
[4:37] online so you could go in there and then send it on to your whoever you wanted your financial
[4:45] representative to have whatever would have those passwords, you know, if anything happened.
[4:50] So yeah, it was like I said the booklet was very thorough and yeah, nice. Well, thank you.
[4:57] Colleen, thanks for that feedback. So I think that's something like I said we hope to do on a regular basis
[5:02] then it really needs to need.
[5:05] In May, we had, that's older Americans month, and we're going to try every year to do something
[5:10] special in older Americans month.
[5:12] This year we kicked it off with our documentary premiere, that was a really big event.
[5:16] We had the daytime premiere, we had about 54 seniors come for the daytime event, and
[5:21] then we had around 100 people attend the premiere in the evening.
[5:25] That also was a silent option fundraiser.
[5:29] The money raised went to the McFarlane area outreach endowment,
[5:34] which is the nonprofit organization that we work with for grant money,
[5:39] for older adults in need and things like that.
[5:42] We raised about $2,400 for that from that, which was great,
[5:47] and had a lot of wonderful feedback.
[5:49] So we're hoping that that's a great kind of inaugural event
[5:53] and each year it'll, it'll, more for a little bit and change a little bit, but always be
[5:57] something focusing on older adults, celebrating older adults for the entire community.
[6:05] We had a vaccination clinic in May. We're planning on doing them twice a year as the next one is
[6:11] actually coming up in October with the O'Connell mobile pharmacy and that's starting to gain a
[6:17] little bit more steam. Of course, the fall tends to be a little bit more engagement because the flu
[6:22] vaccine is out and things like that. But they were pleased with the amount of people that came
[6:28] for that in the amount of vaccines that they were given. Other things that have been pretty
[6:35] consistent is the meals with melody. We've been doing that on a monthly basis. Our senior
[6:40] films have started to gain some attendance, which is exciting. We've been getting a lot of people
[6:46] coming to the senior films. I don't know if it's because the words getting out, they like the movies
[6:52] we're choosing, I'm not sure, but I'm glad that's going well. And then in June, if you turn
[6:59] the page, June, we had planned to kind of like downshift a little bit from our big events
[7:06] in April and May, but the root beer float event, we had no idea we'd have 70 people come.
[7:14] That was a very well-attended event. We have never had that many people come. I think last year,
[7:20] We counted 40 people who came, so we pivoted from having it at Lewis Park to having it here.
[7:28] This is kind of a more accessible space and it's a little bit easier for us to our staff.
[7:33] We don't have to be hauling things over there and I worked really well, so that we were, we were very pleased with it.
[7:41] Before I move on, is there any questions about any of the programming things?
[7:46] Yeah, I noticed for June and April that the aging with wisdom thing didn't have any attendance noted was that did that mean there wasn't any attendance?
[7:56] Oh, no good question, that was just there are some that we're still trying to get used to taking a regular attendance.
[8:04] We don't quite have a program in place or a process in place for that.
[8:07] And so those were a couple that we did not work like with Hipper or something or no, no, no, no, we're just not we're not like taking the actual attendance.
[8:15] But I think what we might do is come up with a form, I think Diane you mentioned this maybe that it's just a blank form that people need to sign in when they come in
[8:25] It's trying to get people to sign in to like yesterday we had an event and no one was signing in and so then I had to like send the thing around and so
[8:33] I think it's us getting used to making sure attendance is taken everywhere, but also all of the attendees.
[8:39] sure he's designed it. So, but let me see, aging with wisdom, the one on the 28th, we had really
[8:44] good attendance for that one. That was, I'm sorry, that was, I'm sorry, I'm talking about April
[8:48] to the night. Yeah. That was Diana Grove from UW Health. She did a wonderful mindfulness class
[8:57] and I would say we had maybe 18 people, just a ballpark. That one went really well. And then in May,
[9:06] I believe that was the month that,
[9:11] oh, the song, the May one wait a minute.
[9:14] You don't have anything to make.
[9:15] That's right, for me, it was,
[9:17] we had one speaker who had to cancel it was the one
[9:21] about when too much stuff is too much, yeah.
[9:24] And so she was not well and had to cancel for that month
[9:28] and we rescheduled it for July.
[9:31] So that meant that in May we did not have our plans speaker.
[9:35] But she came in July and that was a very well-attended one, but we'll talk about that at the Q3 report.
[9:42] And then in June, that one was someone from the Swallow Clinic, and that one we had, I would say, closer to around 10 to 12 people were probably at that one.
[9:53] And she talked about swallowing concerns as you age was swallowing as well as what they do with the clinic there and how they could help you.
[10:03] Um, we did try and tune a Chigong class to just see what kind of interest we had in it.
[10:08] It's something we might offer in the future, but since we already have a Tai Chi class,
[10:13] there is a lot of similarity in them.
[10:15] They are different modalities, but a lot of similarity.
[10:18] So, at this time, it was just like a one-off class for that.
[10:24] Um, we continued to do our reimagining retirement on a monthly basis, and, um, one thing that
[10:31] are finding by the way we're starting to work planning for 2027 in fact tomorrow is our little
[10:38] retreat our staff retreat where we plan for 2027 and one thing we're going to do is switch all of our
[10:46] lecture series so all the reimagining retirement and aging with wisdoms to days where we have a meal
[10:52] and we're going to switch them to more of a lunch and learn format and I feel like that will
[10:57] get more people attending since it'll kind of piggyback on our lunch. So that could improve
[11:03] our lunch numbers as well as our lecture numbers. So those will be moving to probably
[11:10] mostly Thursdays, but we do need to have a certain amount of flexibility with some of our
[11:17] speakers, especially when we do the Badger Talks ones. These are like UW professors, they're
[11:22] very busy people, and so sometimes we'll switch it up the day to be able to get
[11:27] particular speaker to come, but we are thinking Thursdays will probably be an ideal day for a lot of
[11:32] our lunch and learn kind of sessions. Any other questions about our programs for quarter to
[11:39] two? Lunch and learn that'll be with the meal but do they just come for the session and not the meal
[11:46] or not? We've done that the past where you can. You can just come for the session if you want or come
[11:51] for the meal beforehand and stay for the session kind of thing. Yeah and we find the times that we've
[11:56] that a lot of times our regular diners will hang out and stay too so yeah and just to clarify
[12:02] that it was the reimagining retirement series and aging with wisdom. Those are our two lecture
[12:08] series that we have.
[12:13] Do we have the pay for those people that come like from the WN stuff?
[12:18] That's a really good question. Mostly no. So through the Badger Talks program, that's a free series
[12:26] And an organization can have two speakers a year for free.
[12:31] Now, they are starting a new program there where it's more of a workshop kind of format.
[12:36] It's a little bit more extensive and some of those there is a fee for them.
[12:42] But we are not sure if we would branch into that quite yet.
[12:46] So mostly those are free.
[12:48] We did have to pay for Diana Grove.
[12:52] She came from UW Health.
[12:53] So, she did have a fee associated with hers, but we usually try to do ones that are no cost.
[13:01] And actually, the one that Diana Grove did about mindfulness, we did ask for our sponsorships for that.
[13:08] And so, we had two different sponsors.
[13:11] They were both massage therapists who work in the McFarland area who's sponsored that.
[13:16] Because they're kind of like a natural kind of connection.
[13:19] Yeah, that's a good idea.
[13:22] But, you know, getting sponsors is a fair amount of work too.
[13:27] So that's not something that we would want to do on a monthly basis, which we usually try
[13:32] to find free speakers.
[13:35] Actually, the speaker who did the, when too much stuff is too much, she's one of our volunteers.
[13:41] Yep.
[13:42] And she, Alison Bonass, is her name.
[13:45] And she does kitchen volunteering for us on Tuesdays.
[13:49] And she's also a therapist.
[13:52] And so she said, hey, I work with people who have struggle with kind of hoarding tendencies
[13:59] and I feel like I could do a lecture on that.
[14:03] So that's how that one came about.
[14:05] Yeah, that's cool.
[14:09] The one thing we do pay for on a monthly basis is the musicians.
[14:14] So the musicians we pay for those and we also have to pay for the movies that we show.
[14:19] But it's not a whole lot, since we are a government agency, it's pretty small amount.
[14:26] Does that come out of the regular budget that you plan for, or is it coming out of the endowment fund?
[14:32] It comes out of the budget that we plan for for the most part, yes, and on our programming line.
[14:39] However, with the musicians, I have been meeting to get sponsors for those more regularly,
[14:48] because it is more expensive. I mean, and I also feel like artists deserve to be paid, as well, right, you know.
[14:55] So, there's some that offer a lower rate for...
[15:00] Coming to a senior center. But there's some that don't, and that's fine. And so I think so far this year,
[15:07] I've only asked funding from the endowment for one of the musicians. I always try my best to find
[15:17] either a business or an individual who would like to sponsor that. And in our September newsletter that's not out yet,
[15:25] we're actually thanking Sue Simpson is a local older adult who attends from our program.
[15:32] She is sponsoring the Mad City Yooks who are coming in September and then I put on
[15:38] there would you like to sponsor an upcoming musical performance too? So just kind of get the
[15:42] word out there if someone would like to sponsor that. Yeah. But that adds up pretty quickly.
[15:49] So what's the range of cost for a musician? Just, you know, typical.
[15:53] It's about 150 to 300.
[15:58] So, Matt's at a use is 150.
[16:03] Yeah.
[16:04] It just kind of depends also how big the musical group is.
[16:07] Things like that.
[16:08] Okay.
[16:09] With the movies, you also have a donation box.
[16:12] You know, so people would donate to $33.
[16:15] I mean, if you haven't come to a movie, it's great.
[16:18] because you can get popcorn you get just like going to the movies is just not quite as comfortable
[16:25] seating but it's really darn good and you know just you know if you put in a $5 bill you definitely
[16:33] got your money's worth and it's cheaper than going to the theater so I mean those donations must
[16:38] cut into that cost somewhat I mean maybe not fully but at least it's yeah yeah yeah that is very
[16:46] And yeah, I wish we could have a bunch of like barcolongers in here. Wouldn't that be cool?
[16:53] So you're probably for the planning to facility planning.
[16:59] Yeah,
[17:03] the movies have been really fun.
[17:06] We actually had our first a weird jaws in July.
[17:12] And we were like, I don't know, are people going to come?
[17:14] Yeah.
[17:14] Oh, okay.
[17:16] Oh, okay.
[17:18] So that was fun.
[17:19] Yeah, it's good.
[17:20] It's good.
[17:22] Okay.
[17:22] So health and wellness classes, we've had strong bones, strong bodies, again, both, both
[17:30] classes.
[17:32] The forever fit with Tammy is also similar in structure.
[17:35] She did the same training with the strong bones curriculum.
[17:39] Um, she has strong attendance at both classes.
[17:43] I, are she full yet?
[17:44] You know, I haven't heard, but I think she might.
[17:47] Yes, she's getting close.
[17:48] I saw in the room just now, the early class looked pretty pretty.
[17:52] Yeah.
[17:52] She does not have as large of a class as Kathy does, um, as she's newer to, to teaching.
[18:00] So she's keeping her class a little bit smaller, but, um, that strong attendance in that,
[18:06] Balance class.
[18:08] So we've been finding the 1030AM class is full.
[18:12] It's full again this next session,
[18:14] but the 1130AM class, we're having more difficulty feeling.
[18:18] I think it's because it's over the lunch hour.
[18:20] But the problem is there's no other time earlier in the morning
[18:24] to do it, so that's just kind of a crunch with our space.
[18:30] The mornings are really popular times for classes.
[18:32] So hard to find in earlier time to come in and they want to do one class right and where I'd
[18:39] after the other since it's a teacher from so-and-health who comes down here. So we're trying to kind
[18:45] of work through that a little bit and see what we can do. Tai Chi, we have about five people who attend
[18:53] that on a regular basis. Yoga, we've had about 10 people attending that regularly and line dancing
[19:00] has had a little bit of a drop in attendance in the summer that is a drop-in class and they're
[19:05] getting an average of about six people attending that class. Just FY we have a few class changes
[19:11] that will be coming up in the fall. We are changing the time for a Tai Chi, changing the time for
[19:17] line dancing, we're potentially adding another class. So there's going to be some things that
[19:23] we're switching up. We're always trying to figure out what times the day work best for different
[19:29] classes and try our best to accommodate that before I move on to the nutrition program.
[19:35] Any questions about that?
[19:38] Any questions?
[19:40] So nutrition.
[19:43] So overall, our congregate sites have increased.
[19:48] So this is from quarter two of 2025 compared to quarter two of 26.
[19:54] So our Cambridge meal site has had a 30% increase from the same time last year.
[20:03] Our home-delivered meal went down, actually, we had a 7% decrease.
[20:08] We actually went from five routes to four routes.
[20:11] And I was mapping it out kind of the trajectory over the last couple of years,
[20:17] and we had a big spike, and then we had a downturn, now it's kind of correcting itself,
[20:22] which happens from time to time.
[20:26] I did it do that.
[20:28] Hold on just a second.
[20:32] Thank you.
[20:33] Did the Zoom meeting just stop?
[20:36] I see it, Katie.
[20:37] You see it on there?
[20:39] I have it up, yeah.
[20:41] Okay, it says on mine that it's connecting.
[20:44] I'm wondering if some glitch happened.
[20:50] I could ask Ben if just to make sure
[20:52] that it's still recording here.
[20:54] Is it?
[20:56] Okay, okay, okay. You just have to leave the call. You need to share your screen at all. That's fine.
[21:01] Okay, that's fine.
[21:02] You're going to the house.
[21:03] No.
[21:04] Yeah, it's just saying it's it's connecting.
[21:08] I have the little.
[21:11] Okay.
[21:12] Well, okay.
[21:13] It looks like it should be fine.
[21:16] Sorry about that.
[21:18] So we're not concerned about the home deliver meal numbers.
[21:21] It's just we kind of had a dip.
[21:23] and it's starting to climb back up again.
[21:26] Oh, there it is.
[21:28] McFarlane congregate numbers were pleased with.
[21:30] We have a 32% increase from 2025 numbers.
[21:34] So that continues to go up,
[21:37] which we've been quite pleased with.
[21:39] And those are number meals.
[21:41] These, so in 2026, an April manju,
[21:45] that's a number meal served in those
[21:47] most total numbers meal served.
[21:50] And then the percentage is just the percentage
[21:52] of meals, increase, or decrease.
[21:57] And then our case, any questions about nutrition?
[22:02] Case management.
[22:05] Here's our case management numbers.
[22:07] Like I mentioned last time, the documentation process
[22:10] is changing with the county.
[22:13] And things are kind of tightening up a little bit about how long
[22:18] people we call our sixth 10.
[22:20] That's our list, in what I say, openings and closing sets.
[22:23] That's our list of who is and is not on case management and that's what we report to the county.
[22:31] Some things are changing as far as how long a client stays on their eligibility to be considered a case management client that is reimbursed at the county.
[22:45] So some of those things are changing and tightening up a little bit and so we're accommodating and getting used to that.
[22:52] We've also started doing targeted case management, which is the word that they use for clients who are in Medicaid.
[23:02] That is billed separately from the rest of the case management numbers, and so we've started doing that.
[23:09] In, let's see, May we started doing that.
[23:13] So a lot of changes right now with the county and we're making a lot of adjustments, but we're working it out.
[23:21] And then, how much of a change is, for instance, the federal government has started to withdraw
[23:27] some of their funding and so on?
[23:30] How much of a change is that going to be for you?
[23:32] And it's going to be face to and I assume.
[23:35] It is going to be phased in, I guess that's a good question.
[23:38] I'm actually meeting with the county today to see what some of the budget outlines are for
[23:45] a four-case management and nutrition for the coming year.
[23:48] they've been, there hasn't been a lot of information released to us prior to today.
[23:54] Okay, question number two deals with a number of people that we're serving and in what locations.
[24:02] And so my question is, do we keep separate records for within McFarlane outside of McFarlane
[24:10] and how much do we know that we're increasing or decreasing that number of health cases?
[24:17] Absolutely, yeah. So we do keep separate, you know, we know how many clients, how many units of service are in each of the communities that we serve.
[24:28] So again, we serve the Village of McFarlane, town of Dun, town of Pleasant Springs, Cambridge, Rockdale, and Christina.
[24:34] So we actually do reports to all of those communities. And since the county doesn't pay for 100% of our case management costs,
[24:45] The villager McFarlane can't subsidize those other communities.
[24:49] So there is a formula that we have created to then send out to these other communities and
[24:58] say these are the number of service hours that we are providing to your community and this
[25:04] is the amount of costs that is associated with that and then they pay us back for that.
[25:09] So even if those numbers go up or down,
[25:13] that payment from that community would be reflect that.
[25:17] Could you sometime in one of your reports reflect back for us?
[25:23] How many cases you handle in those locations?
[25:27] So it's split out.
[25:28] So we can see what the numbers are in the different areas.
[25:31] I don't think there's any rush for it.
[25:33] I'm just curious, is to how the balance is across the areas
[25:38] we are serving and I'm very well aware I know the whole history I went through it as a board member
[25:45] as far as the background in payment. I'm not as worried about the payment as I am the service
[25:52] we are providing and how much and how it balances. Okay. Yeah, sure sure. I would say the community that we
[26:02] have the most hours in is a McFarland, followed by done, would be the second.
[26:08] Those other communities tend to be more rural, right?
[26:13] So there's less population in those communities, so we don't quite serve quite as much.
[26:19] And also, I forgot where I was going with them.
[26:24] Anyway, yes, I will definitely, I will definitely do that.
[26:28] Any other questions about case management?
[26:31] I do have a little bit more of some text here to kind of describe what has been going on taste management wise.
[26:38] We've been doing a lot of heat related support in the early summer with the heat waves.
[26:45] We actually, there's a local organization called Spartan Samaritans and we've worked with them for a number of different client needs that weren't able to be fulfilled by the endowment for one reason or other.
[26:58] And one thing, we have a number of clients who live at the Homestead, which is subsidized housing across the street here, and there is no central AC in that building.
[27:11] And a lot of units don't have window units. You'd have to provide your own window unit.
[27:17] And we noticed that that was quite a need, and it was a systemic need over there.
[27:22] And we have, through the endowment, help people apply for some endowment applications and gotten
[27:27] peace meal like one personal get a new AC unit or something like that.
[27:31] But it seemed like this was a bigger need.
[27:34] So we reached out to Spartan Samaritan and said there's 14 apartments over there that don't
[27:38] have AC, we're having these heat waves, it's probably going to be a more regular occurrence,
[27:43] and they ended up funding all of them.
[27:46] So they funded all the AC units, had them delivered, had them installed.
[27:50] So now we know that everyone at the home said is has appropriate cooling over there, which it's really pleased with that.
[28:00] And that is...
[28:00] How many units are there?
[28:02] How many units are there?
[28:04] 40, I believe, it's a total number of units.
[28:08] And that is all people who are either 55 and older or with disabilities.
[28:15] So that we were really pleased with.
[28:17] We also had some other people who did not live at the homestead that we have utilized
[28:22] endowment grant funding for either AC repair or AC replacements, so that was something we
[28:31] worked with.
[28:31] Oh, and I did not write it this in here, but the other thing was the smoke-related air quality.
[28:38] We also had luckily leftover from COVID.
[28:41] we still had some of the K95 and 95 masks, and so we did have those available for people that
[28:48] we knew who had, you know, a COPD or any sort of breathing issues that they might need that.
[28:54] So, distributed as we could.
[28:56] Did you give us a little background on Spartan Americans?
[29:01] It's a newer group of businessman who has started an aid organization.
[29:08] And they, it's not just first seniors, it's for anyone in McFarland.
[29:13] They work mostly with organizations kind of helping out.
[29:17] So it's not like an arm of the Chamber of Commerce necessarily.
[29:22] It's just a group of people.
[29:25] Yeah, it's relatively new from McFarland business.
[29:28] Yeah, from McFarland business.
[29:29] Yeah, from McFarland business.
[29:39] people who if you're eligible for a food share you would also be eligible to get
[29:43] farmers market vouchers. I believe it's $25 in vouchers that can be used at
[29:49] different farm stands, farmers markets, things like that. So we've been working with
[29:55] a number of older adults to help them apply for that. They can use it at
[29:58] Eucsters, farmer.
[30:04] So, we have a lot of people who are keen to get their sweet corn from there. So, our case managers have been able to help get a lot of people hooked up with those.
[30:13] Long-class has been very busy, and we have one of our volunteers right here.
[30:20] Jerry Adrian and Gordon Kinder are been very busy helping to clean, repair, and store
[30:26] the equipment.
[30:27] We've also been working with the Wisconsin Medical Project, and they are an aid organization
[30:33] that collects durable medical equipment and supplies, medical supplies, all sorts of different
[30:40] things and sends them overseas with doctors without orders, so we've kind of gotten a connection
[30:47] so that any overflow or things that we don't normally keep in our long closet or other
[30:53] medical supplies that are dropped off are sent that way, which is helpful because sometimes
[30:57] we'll have a caregiver family member who's had a loved one in hospice who's passed away and
[31:03] they have a lot of supplies usually and don't want them to go to waste. We can't necessarily
[31:10] use them, but it's kind of nice to have a place for them to one stop shop or drop off all of those
[31:15] things and then we coordinate where they can go. A lot of times caregivers have a lot of their
[31:20] plate after the loss of a lift one. So whatever we can do to make that a little bit easier.
[31:26] Dimension support. So we have had our Dimension caregiver support group running on a monthly basis.
[31:32] It's going to be today. It's the third Wednesday of the month that's led by
[31:38] I'm Helen Taylor of the Dink County 80 RC and it's been very well attended.
[31:47] We're getting a really cohesive group starting to form, but new people come each month.
[31:53] Concurrently with that we also have what is turned out to be a dementia activity group.
[31:58] So the loved ones who have cognitive changes are in a separate room.
[32:04] We have a volunteer. My name is Jamie Kazmersky. She is fabulous and she and a volunteer.
[32:12] Another volunteer Lori worked together to create an hour of activities. Sometimes it's crafts.
[32:20] There's snack. There's a lot of sensory activities they do with the loved one. So it turns out to be a respite time as well.
[32:28] So that's been great.
[32:31] Also, they're doing something similar at the Cambridge meal site.
[32:35] So one Tuesday, a month after the Cambridge congregate meal,
[32:41] they have a similar thing.
[32:43] And since Cambridge is on the border of Jefferson County in Dane County,
[32:46] it's a partnership between the Dane and Jefferson County
[32:49] dementia specialists who run that.
[32:51] So we don't run that.
[32:53] McCrllan doesn't have anything to do with that.
[32:56] run through the county but it's well attended and it's bringing a lot of people to the
[33:00] meal site then on that day too. We are seeing more people who are coming in struggling with
[33:09] cognitive changes or caregivers of people who are struggling with cognitive changes. I will talk
[33:14] about later in the agenda today about our dementia friendly initiative and how that's going
[33:19] because we're definitely seeing the need for more education and support in the broader community.
[33:27] Other things that we've been dealing with, just kind of the FYI, what we do on a daily basis.
[33:34] We've had a number of clients recently with alcohol dependency.
[33:38] That can exacerbate cognitive changes. It can also be an increase in falls.
[33:43] That's a really difficult thing to work with because addiction is difficult to change.
[33:49] It's a disease. It's often something that people have been struggling with for a long, long time.
[33:54] And it can become increasingly challenging in when you're an older adult.
[34:00] So we're seeing some cases of that.
[34:03] A lot of caregivers stress and burnout, nation-wide actually there's a shortage in care workers.
[34:09] We definitely see that here as well.
[34:12] So more of the burden is falling on our caregivers.
[34:16] We've been supporting some veterans.
[34:17] We've had a veterans with PTSD.
[34:19] We've had veterans with some housing insecurity.
[34:22] continued lack of affordable housing in McFarlane but Dan County in general.
[34:29] That can lead to a lot of financial stress for older adults, and I'll show you
[34:33] on the endowment grant applications below.
[34:36] We regularly get requests for help with rent that they're not able to make their rent.
[34:43] And we've unfortunately had an uptick in clients who've had their electricity shut off.
[34:47] So by law, that electricity cannot be shut off in certain winter months, but in the summer
[34:53] it can, for non-bill payment.
[34:58] So that's a real unfortunate situation when it gets to that point.
[35:02] There is some crisis funding available through energy assistance, but you know, becomes
[35:09] so much bigger problem than, for example, we had a client who had their electricity shut
[35:13] off that means also then their phone gets shut off, you know, like they can't use
[35:17] their phone, their refrigerators shut off,
[35:19] all their food goes bad, you know,
[35:21] it becomes quickly a snowball situation.
[35:25] So that's a challenge with the heat being so high
[35:29] this summer, people are running their air conditioners
[35:32] and that brings up their electricity bills.
[35:36] So that's what we're seeing.
[35:38] The endowment grant applications down below.
[35:41] This is something that I've added on here.
[35:44] April we had six, a lot. They were for rent ambulance bill, moving expenses, someone
[35:51] need a microwave, dental bill, may rent gas cards, gas to get to and from their job.
[36:01] And June, it was an air conditioning unit and you can kind of see the total amount of funding.
[36:06] July, again, there's going to be another peak in numbers in July, unfortunately.
[36:13] Um, RSV, uh, before I move on any questions about case management or any of those, I just
[36:20] have one, uh, with a dementia support.
[36:23] Um, I ran into some people at, uh, McFarlane House, which you know is my favorite, one of
[36:28] my favorite places.
[36:29] You're almost home away from home.
[36:30] No, I'm home.
[36:31] Yeah.
[36:32] And, um, I, I was tracking, I like to track some of the seniors there.
[36:37] And one of them goes to the dementia support here and said nothing but great things about it and how, you know, it's kind of a great place to, you know, meet others and really, you know, get a lot of support.
[36:52] But one thing they did mention was the bathrooms that when they bring their spouse, their spouse can't get in the bathroom here.
[37:00] because I don't know if they were in a wheelchair
[37:03] or if they were in a walker,
[37:06] but we don't have an accessible bathroom here.
[37:10] That's kind of scary and I don't think they're inviting.
[37:14] But I think we were remodeling or making this
[37:18] an incredible senior center.
[37:21] We just, I think we need to think about that.
[37:25] I guess I'm puzzled because there is a white stall in there.
[37:29] and then there's the one in the little shirt hallway that they should be able during
[37:35] that's open, right, during regular hours, it's not like locked.
[37:40] It's not. I don't know if there's install bars though in there.
[37:43] I don't know. There's only one side.
[37:45] But it's a private one where the spouse could accompany the, you know, the other end.
[37:50] Yeah, and I don't know if it's because there wasn't a push button, you know, we didn't go into
[37:56] She was a female that was the one that and he was pretty upset about that.
[38:05] Just because that person could not get into the bathroom, I don't know if it was
[38:10] themselves.
[38:12] But I think that's something we really need to kind of think about is some accessibility
[38:17] for the bathroom.
[38:19] And then I think the other is just the lack of affordable housing, especially for
[38:23] what all the housing that's going in in McFarland, you know, is can the board do anything about,
[38:31] you know, people are going to build these huge housing units, is there anything we can do for seniors?
[38:38] No, bottom floor seniors only.
[38:41] With a party room, very fun party room, but you know, but just just something to kind of help with the seniors a little bit, you know,
[38:51] become of a kind of a nice thing, and I don't know, I don't know, it just sticks of everything
[38:56] that happens when you are going to build an apartment.
[38:59] So the multi-stories, a senior housing that's been going in, like right across from the public
[39:04] safety building, I assume that there's elevators, if they're not on the first floor, those
[39:08] are elevators.
[39:09] I don't know how many units are set up for subsidized housing.
[39:13] But usually those larger developments are they kind of being required to, I could have said
[39:18] No thing is, it's 45 units in that building, but I thought that was all, all subsidized?
[39:24] Not all, but that is for senior.
[39:27] It's for seniors, you know, how many units do they do?
[39:29] Subsequently, yeah.
[39:31] So it's not actually subsidized.
[39:32] So subsidized housing is, the rent is set to 30% of the person's income.
[39:39] So it's different for everybody.
[39:41] And there's only one subsidized housing in McFarlane, that's the homestead across the street.
[39:45] Now, Prairie Creek and Taylor Point, Taylor Point is over on the part of Taylor and
[39:55] Larson Beach, and then Prairie Creek across from the public safety center.
[39:58] Those are both called Section 42 housing or affordable housing, and what that is is a certain
[40:05] percentage of the units need to be at a certain decrease percentage of the market rate.
[40:11] So there's so many units that are 30% market rate, 50, 60, you know, and all of those numbers are negotiable.
[40:21] To usually, when the developers are developing that site, that's negotiated.
[40:27] So usually there's one or two units that are 30% you know, and then more of the up to 90%.
[40:35] And then there's a certain amount of units that are market rate in there.
[40:39] So all of that is kind of a negotiation.
[40:42] All right, the cottages to the very old,
[40:44] but they've been around for a long time,
[40:46] but I thought some of those were also for whether they're
[40:49] market the, again, the section, whatever you use.
[40:52] Section 42, they are all market right now.
[40:55] It used to be, some of them were section two,
[40:57] they are all market rate.
[40:58] The same thing with Williams Town Bay, which is on
[41:00] D.L. Street, that used to include some reduced
[41:05] units, they are all market right now.
[41:07] Okay, yeah, rent is really high, right now, yeah, yeah, it can be challenging.
[41:15] Yeah, because I'm like the, I can never, I can never, is a Scalin Scalin Scalin
[41:19] Scalin Village, I think in McFarlane it's up to 235 on the list.
[41:25] I think it's a seven year wait list right now.
[41:27] Yeah, so that's, yeah, that's a lot.
[41:31] And they're supposed to build another development, aren't they?
[41:35] They have a band, they have a band, but they are doing that when, well, she, that's the
[41:43] question when, you know, we're moving blifered, but can we?
[41:49] Wasn't I ever the first of also had some property that was going to be for a senior development
[41:56] is that was that a rumor or out in that direction?
[42:00] I don't know.
[42:01] I think it's a rumor.
[42:02] My favorite one, let me just say.
[42:05] But sounds like there's some discussion happening, you know, about there's a need.
[42:10] I mean, obviously, we'll 235, 7-year wait.
[42:15] There's a need.
[42:17] Yeah, we're seeing your housing.
[42:21] But yeah, I mean, if you would like at some point I'd be happy to
[42:25] create something that talks about the different kinds of housing and what affordable housing is for
[42:30] to subsidize housing versus section E.
[42:32] There's all these different words
[42:33] that we use out there and what does that actually mean?
[42:36] I'd be happy to put something together
[42:38] if you'd like more information about that.
[42:40] I think that'd be good.
[42:41] And when you do that, could you identify
[42:44] what we have in the village and where?
[42:46] Oh yeah, that's it, that's it.
[42:48] But I thought it was a big project, can you?
[42:49] I know.
[42:51] I know.
[42:52] Why don't we tomorrow, we want you, maybe we're on talk.
[42:56] And then I guess my question is and always always is, you know, and then when we go through the next thing to the municipal center, do we want to go in front of the board?
[43:11] You know, do we want to make a, you know, like the soccer people and baseball people do and should we go in front of the board with all the information?
[43:19] Well I think there will be an opportunity to do that with a new designer coming.
[43:24] So we can't talk about that in just a minute.
[43:26] How about I finish up the Q2 report here?
[43:30] Because there's just one more section on there.
[43:32] You know, Katie, I was just going to add that because my daughter does for living right now
[43:40] the median income level is 91,000 for Dame County.
[43:47] So those percentages are based on 91,000.
[43:50] And so there's a lot of people who have full-time jobs who are taking part of the percentage
[44:01] reduction.
[44:02] So it's not, I think, a lot of times, people think you're getting a reduced rent, it's
[44:10] you know.
[44:11] It's still a lot.
[44:13] Yeah.
[44:13] A part of all is relative term.
[44:17] Yeah.
[44:18] Exactly.
[44:20] It's a challenge.
[44:23] The last section on here is our RSVP driver escort ride, so again we have Brittany's one of
[44:29] our staff members who coordinate to all of the rides, so these are volunteers giving rides
[44:34] to and from not emergency medical appointments using their own vehicles for older adults in
[44:41] our service area, and you can see the number of rides I highlighted June because Holy
[44:46] smokes. That was a lot of pride. So there was 69 separate rides with 23
[44:53] set unique passengers and nine drivers did that. So that's a lot of of um
[45:00] Rights that our volunteers are giving. A few things to just point out with that is transportation is also something that we're definitely seeing a need for older adults, transportation options.
[45:13] But that's a lot of staff time that we have going into coordinating rides and our volunteers are really doing a great job.
[45:21] We actually just got, we did orientation for three brand new driver escort drivers.
[45:29] So that was a day of celebration in our department because that is something that we're
[45:35] always looking for as driver escort drivers.
[45:38] So anyways, that's great to know that that is a service that is being taken advantage
[45:44] of by our older adults. Any questions about rights? So that was quarter two. I will as Jerry
[45:57] suggested do some breaking out of the case management numbers just so y'all know the
[46:02] difference of how many we're doing that are from the different municipalities. I will also start
[46:09] breaking out now our targeted case management numbers versus our regular case management number.
[46:15] So again, targeted case management is the Medicaid clients that we see that we're going to
[46:19] start billing separately, which has become a requirement from the county now that we have to
[46:24] do that separately.
[46:25] So just so that you know that with the number differences on those, anything else that you would
[46:30] like to see different with our quarterly reports, the information that would be helpful.
[46:39] Okay, it's impossible to get them into the packet.
[46:43] Yes, I can.
[46:44] Okay, thank you.
[46:47] Okay.
[46:48] Okay.
[46:49] Thank you.
[46:50] Yeah.
[46:51] I'm moving on to the item B is a discussion.
[46:55] Progress of dementia friendly training for the Village of McFarlane staff volunteers, members
[47:00] of the Board's Admissions and Committees.
[47:04] So you all probably know about what we're moving towards the dementia friendly initiative here
[47:08] in McFarland. So we've started doing training so far the summer we have done two general
[47:15] trainings and two specialized trainings for police. So the general trainings are for staff,
[47:23] village McFarland departments, boards committee commission members and volunteers.
[47:31] And then we have separate trainings for our police and separate trainings for fire EMS.
[47:37] So so far we've had two of the general ones and two of the police ones that we've completed, we still have some coming up.
[47:46] We have one tomorrow actually.
[47:49] Here at the municipal center, there's the August 20th from 11 to noon.
[47:54] Then we have another one next Monday, August 24th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. also here.
[48:00] And Tuesday, September 1st from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. here. Those are all the general ones.
[48:06] Now, the police ones are separate just because those are longer trainings.
[48:11] We go through some more in-depth kind of case studies with them.
[48:14] They have a very different kind of interaction and engagement with the public, so it's
[48:19] much more specialized for them.
[48:21] And then in September, we're doing a training, they have a monthly training with the entire
[48:27] fire EMS with all of the like volunteer firefighters and things like that, so that will
[48:33] there evening training will be the dementia friendly training in September. So we should be able
[48:38] to catch most of them there. I know some of you have taken it. I Kathy, you took the training
[48:45] it. So the idea with this is to give you kind of an overview of basic knowledge of what dementia
[48:53] is to be able to recognize some of the kind of symptoms progression of dementia and then we're
[49:01] case, like a little case study at the end of, you know, how you might interact with someone in
[49:07] the community who may be struggling and what are some strategies tools for you to best support
[49:13] that person. So I think it's going pretty well. We're getting a lot of people signing up for it.
[49:20] So that's great. If you haven't signed up for it yet, there is a sign up genius. I'm happy to send
[49:24] to you again if you like, and yeah, we're hoping to get the majority of everyone trained.
[49:33] So the next steps for this, so October and beyond, I had a meeting with someone from
[49:40] the school district, we're hoping to bring it to the schools. I'll also be reaching
[49:44] out to faith communities, civic organizations, civic groups, and then businesses. So we'll continue
[49:55] doing trainings throughout McFarlane. When are you meeting with the schools?
[50:01] So next week they're doing their in-services and so I'll be meeting with going to talk about it.
[50:07] There. Yeah, yeah, it's great. Yeah, because I love to bring it to the students.
[50:12] Our hope is, as we move forward, we're going to start gathering people who are really interested
[50:20] in working with this particular issue and with this population to form kind of a coalition
[50:26] a group.
[50:28] And that group of volunteers then will all eventually be able to do their, they do a train
[50:34] a trainer training so that then they can go out and present in the community as well.
[50:42] Katie, are you planning to incorporate the dementia-friendly training with your election inspector
[50:47] training?
[50:48] Ooh, yes.
[50:50] I would like to do that.
[50:51] I don't know full of time to do it before our election this year, but yes, absolutely.
[50:56] Did you do that in Manona?
[50:57] We have, and they find it very helpful, and they're asking for it again if there are new
[51:03] election inspector, so do training anyway, so it's kind of nice to kind of incorporate that in.
[51:10] In the other thing from the dementia-friendly leaders initiatives,
[51:17] post-COVID, those of us who
[51:19] had initiatives going, it's been a struggle finding volunteers, that's why I really compliment
[51:25] Katie for bringing this on, because it's a challenge to try to find people to do the work
[51:31] of a community's dementia friendly initiative.
[51:35] So, Dane County is actually thinking about
[51:37] doing one whole county meeting,
[51:43] which then, so like I run a memory cafe
[51:47] plus the initiative meetings and all the trainings
[51:50] and all of that, it's just a lot
[51:52] on very limited staff.
[51:55] So, the fact that Dane County wants to do just like
[51:57] one, Dane County, dementia friendly meeting.
[52:02] I think is a huge help to those of us who
[52:04] like, just can't do it all.
[52:07] So as you are developing this, I think,
[52:10] I think in October, we're going to start
[52:12] doing some round table discussions and what that looks like.
[52:16] And but that might just kind of either help
[52:18] or take some load off as you're trying to climb this mountain
[52:23] of dementia friendly in McFarland.
[52:25] Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah, I would be interested in attending that roundtable too. That would be great.
[52:33] Wonderful. Any other questions about the dementia friendly initiative and where we're at with that?
[52:45] Okay, very good. Thank you. Moving on to see review status of my Farwon Missile Center Facility Plant.
[52:51] And you have in a pack that quite a, as you can see the report and it was dated July 31st, 26th.
[53:02] So yeah, so this was, we had had some questions about this last time.
[53:07] That was here and it shared kind of where we're at in the process and I just wanted to give you an update, but also make sure you all had access to this.
[53:14] This is from HGA, the architect company that is going to be doing this process, this next planning study going forward, and I just thought you might find this information helpful, so you understand kind of where we're at.
[53:34] So, at this point, the village board has approved for HGA to do this work over the next year.
[53:43] At this point, I believe they are finalizing the contract for that,
[53:46] and then they will be starting to all sorts of engagement with the different stakeholders
[53:55] who would be utilizing this building. So, that's different departments.
[54:00] That would be administration, community development, senior outreach.
[54:06] There also be reaching out to do engagement with older adults who would be utilizing
[54:12] this space,
[54:16] a senior programming.
[54:17] They would probably be reaching out to different community groups who use this space in the
[54:22] evenings, like forage, the girl scouts, you know, all of the different civic groups that
[54:26] utilize this space.
[54:27] So there will, as Barb said, like, when can we engage with this, when can we share what we want?
[54:35] So there are going to be some opportunities coming up.
[54:39] I don't know, Kathy and Lowell, if you have anything to add about that.
[54:43] I don't believe those meetings will be happening until October, probably at the earliest.
[54:49] That's my guess.
[54:50] I think I understand too.
[54:52] Yeah.
[54:52] go to the back page 12, and at the bottom, it's 37 meanings, that's a lot of meanings.
[54:59] And I hope, and then they estimate schedule 8 to 10 months for the study.
[55:05] I would like to see that cut down what would you say, Kathy, 6, 6 months, 8 months.
[55:12] Yeah, it's going to be interesting because we really have no other information than what
[55:18] is in this report about that.
[55:21] So it's hard to say at this moment, but I mean, spring, 2027 really isn't that far away.
[55:31] No, it's just, it's often six months or a couple of months, whatever.
[55:35] And we're into first of April.
[55:38] So I would think that this timeline's got to be somewhat shortened and whatever.
[55:46] And one thing on there, under someone on page 11 of this, you see number one immerse.
[55:54] So they're reviewing all of the pre-existing plans, looking at the space, but under benchmarking tours.
[56:00] So what I will be able to do is share with them, all of things I've shared with all of you, and all of our meetings, right?
[56:06] I've toured a number of different senior centers, and like I took all those photos of them.
[56:11] So all of those kinds of things I'll be sharing with them and any feedback I've received
[56:19] from all of you in those meetings when I shared all those photos and make sure to incorporate
[56:24] that.
[56:24] And then the next part, the Engage part, you can see all those public information meetings.
[56:29] So that's your opportunity and the broader community, it's the opportunity to come and
[56:35] share.
[56:35] And so I will be doing a lot of promotion of that in our newsletters, at our events, things
[56:43] like that to make sure people are aware of the dates once they're set.
[56:48] Dates and times and to come with their ideas.
[56:52] Our picnic is actually coming up.
[56:54] Our annual picnic is coming up next Thursday.
[56:57] And one of the things that we're going to be doing is, you know, in our hallway at,
[57:03] we had everyone write on the board.
[57:04] So we're gonna do a word cloud of that if you've seen those before where you can put into the system and kind of creates an image
[57:10] We're gonna do that and then everyone who attends the picnic will have something where they're gonna write their top five things
[57:16] They'd like to see in the in a senior center just just you know get this idea is starting to
[57:22] Get it rolling start thinking about this in a different way and start giving some feedback
[57:27] So I'm gonna be starting to do more of those kinds of things tracking that information and then
[57:32] encouraging people to start coming to those meetings.
[57:35] But just so you all know that it's on the horizon here,
[57:37] it's coming, it's coming, and then when the time is here,
[57:41] it'll be really important that we have a strong showing
[57:44] of older adults who use their voice to say
[57:47] what they really want this project to look like.
[57:51] So just following up on your degree,
[57:53] you've done a whole lot of footwork by going to these different
[57:57] senior centers around the area and discussing this with us.
[58:00] ready, you know, so the benchmarking tours they were saying, the thing you highlighted, that was
[58:06] their committee might go and see two other centers, but they were thinking, yeah, I mean,
[58:11] that even necessary, I mean other than maybe from an architectural standpoint, you know, maybe
[58:16] they'd be looking at how does that translate into that? That's interesting to you, so they can
[58:21] because it had been more, yeah, go ahead and see what's inside. Well, a tour of one is by chance
[58:26] They built a new community center and it's really quite the place and a whole tour of it, and I took pictures and I shared them with Matt, the pictures, so that was just for my own, because I knew that community.
[58:42] If I wanted to see what they had going there, because they just built a new one.
[58:47] And you know, for senior activities and just, just a really nice place.
[58:54] Yeah, you know, when I looked at this process and I just, I know it's necessary, but it
[58:59] made me kind of side because it was pretty much done a year and a half, two years ago.
[59:05] I feel comfortable.
[59:06] Yeah.
[59:07] And I just don't know how much, you know, other than that the class knew and estimate what
[59:12] the class is going to be to do, things are always changing because of inflation and just
[59:16] changing time. But other than that, like, what are our ideas? You know, it feels like we've done
[59:22] a lot of the footwork. So therefore, shortening the whole timeline from ten months down to six
[59:27] months, doesn't seem unreasonable. And one of the things the board decided actually is they
[59:34] had, I believe, six, six, five, ten grand, I think. Or something like, yeah, more, they were going
[59:40] to do more chores. And we kind of said, well, you know, we've already done some of that work,
[59:45] so they lowered that down, so maybe a couple of tours and then like I said, I can show them
[59:51] the work that we've already done. One thing that I'm looking for too is having them come
[59:58] and walk through the space.
[1:00:00] Just kind of like, here's the ideas for what we could do with space. Because I believe there's, we are going to have to make a lot of alignments, like with what we have, right? How can we best utilize the space that we have to keep the costs down, right? So what efficiencies can we, can we make, and how can we align it with the structure of the building as much as possible now? And so it'll be, I'm really looking forward to that opportunity just walking around with them and seeing, seeing.
[1:00:30] what we can do. I want to add that I actually I towards
[1:00:33] Stolened and Anona, so I've got my three.
[1:00:39] It's great to do, but you know, it's all time continuing too, but.
[1:00:44] Right, and Diane, I was just asking the last page of this
[1:00:50] mentions a kickoff meeting in July or August, because that's been set.
[1:00:54] No, that has not been set. It's probably not going to be until September or October, at least.
[1:00:59] It was just, I think this went back and forth a little bit.
[1:01:02] There were some changes made and so some changes
[1:01:04] to contract needed to be made.
[1:01:06] But I will definitely let everyone know when the kickoff happens.
[1:01:11] Kathy and Lowell, you haven't heard of a date set.
[1:01:16] Yeah.
[1:01:16] That's just a good one.
[1:01:18] One more question, probably directed to the board.
[1:01:19] So you mentioned there's still the contract
[1:01:22] that the hiring this company has been approved,
[1:01:26] but there's still negotiating the contract.
[1:01:28] so that the final amount of money, like it's $225,000 or something,
[1:01:33] that kind of depends on how many tours they do and how many hours are invested,
[1:01:37] or what we committed to that.
[1:01:39] No, they did approve that, yeah, so I'm $1.19, yeah, $1.19, yeah.
[1:01:45] And so I'm sorry, negotiating is probably not the right word.
[1:01:47] I think they're just finalizing the contract and things like that.
[1:01:50] Right, I know. Yeah, yeah.
[1:01:52] But I believe the board voted on it and approved it, and it was an action item.
[1:01:56] Yeah, great.
[1:01:57] So, I think the next part is just the contract and having the meeting and the opening.
[1:02:05] Yeah.
[1:02:05] It's definitely that.
[1:02:06] But it is moving forward.
[1:02:07] And if you read through this a little bit more, you can also go to their website.
[1:02:10] See some of the work that they've done in the past.
[1:02:13] And this kind of talks about the process.
[1:02:15] And I know there's been a lot of a lot of questions about how can I engage?
[1:02:19] Well, there will be opportunities too.
[1:02:22] And I'll be very important too.
[1:02:24] Yeah.
[1:02:24] So since this is the same company that we've had before,
[1:02:29] can they, without cost, look at the previous plans,
[1:02:35] and just added them a little bit to the current space
[1:02:39] and then start from there instead of starting from the very beginning.
[1:02:43] I think they definitely, that's part of the process is looking at the previous plans,
[1:02:47] but there's a few things that are big to purchase from the last time.
[1:02:51] So the last time this space was going to...
[1:02:54] Two stories, right?
[1:02:56] They were talking about two stories.
[1:02:57] They started with one.
[1:02:58] There was also one story option, but that was also with the library having part of this space.
[1:03:05] And it was also with the use center having part of this space.
[1:03:08] So there's been big changes now that those two entities are not going to be incorporated into this building.
[1:03:15] So then that changes the footprint quite a bit.
[1:03:17] So the use center is not going to be in the center.
[1:03:20] that's correct. It's going to be a senior center. It's going to be, well, part of this administration is going to be here and, you know,
[1:03:30] the community development, community economic development, but not, but not the library.
[1:03:38] Okay, not that you said, okay.
[1:03:40] And the village board will still have meetings, they'll still be meeting in this building.
[1:03:44] So there are, there are other things, but yeah, I think because the stakeholders have changed a little bit,
[1:03:54] I think there will need to be some changes to the plan.
[1:03:57] But still, I mean, it seems like there could be some overlap that they could use some of that.
[1:04:03] They will use that, like the, where the HFAC and, you know, those supporting walls or whatever they're called,
[1:04:13] they'll be able to go back and also that. The one thing about this, this is the same group
[1:04:21] that just did the library plan and how they do it is everything has a cost set to it and so
[1:04:34] you will be able to see if you want this to happen it costs as much. If you want this next thing
[1:04:42] happen in cost as much. So, what's been happening, there's been discussions on the library board as well.
[1:04:52] And, you know, we now have the option of picking and choosing, okay, well, we could do these list of things over, you know,
[1:05:01] these other things are probably going to have to wait. There's definitely budget issues involved in all of this.
[1:05:10] One thing I wanted to let everyone know, as the board, as part of the Strategic Implementation Plan, which is setting the goals and the future planning for the village, in the housing and economic development section, the board specifically added senior housing and affordable or more like entry levels.
[1:05:40] single family housing in the word events in there.
[1:05:45] So the senior housing comes up quite a bit at our meeting.
[1:05:51] So thank you.
[1:05:52] Thank you for doing that.
[1:05:54] Yes.
[1:05:54] And I just wanted to note in page nine of their document.
[1:05:58] They talk about the conceptual floor plans are already created, reviewing the old plan.
[1:06:04] So I think it's part of the plan here that they're not going to recreate the wheel.
[1:06:08] They're going to use, you know, what we're going to do.
[1:06:11] And also with what Kathy said,
[1:06:14] we're, I think we're really looking at a phased approach.
[1:06:17] So it's not going to be like boom, it's all done.
[1:06:20] It's going to be phasing, probably four phases over the course
[1:06:24] of the entire building, having it done.
[1:06:27] Because there's also been discussion about what
[1:06:30] happens to all of us who work here
[1:06:33] well, the renovations are happening.
[1:06:34] and the HCA is going to be coming up with a plan so if we can stay here well things are being
[1:06:42] done, right?
[1:06:43] So a part of the building hopefully will be being being worked on and we will not be in that
[1:06:47] space so some of us may need to shift around.
[1:06:50] So that's another kind of piece.
[1:06:51] There's a lot of moving parts to this project and Kathy mentioned that many of services will
[1:06:59] really be able to have a good idea of what we want to prioritize based on what the costs are
[1:07:07] too.
[1:07:09] There will be a lot of transparency that way too.
[1:07:12] Okay, and I, it's been a budget and schedule for next summer really to put the roof on,
[1:07:18] because that's ongoing, a new roof, and now where we're going at one level building, it can
[1:07:23] be done so that, you know, for some time it's needed repairs and a new roof.
[1:07:29] And the boiler, I believe, is being replaced.
[1:07:33] Yep, we're going to have to be good.
[1:07:35] Okay, yeah.
[1:07:36] So there are some things like kind of infrastructure things that have already started.
[1:07:43] What about staffing and stuff?
[1:07:44] I mean, are you, you guys, do you need any, like, staffing and stuff now to get ready for all of that stuff?
[1:07:52] Or is that pretty status quo for right now?
[1:07:55] Well, so that's, you know, going to be part of the budget process
[1:07:58] that we're starting right now is talking about staffing and you know it would definitely be
[1:08:03] helpful for our department to have a little bit more staffing help but that will be part
[1:08:08] of this budget process. It's coming up. Yeah. By coordinator. Yeah. Yeah. The key thing is pulling
[1:08:16] smoothly. Right. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that has followed me over the period of years
[1:08:22] literally period of years when we've been looking at developing this building and trying to
[1:08:29] make changes with it for the seniors. It's that all of a sudden before everything gets finalized
[1:08:36] and set and done, we come up with other projects and all of a sudden becomes a priority.
[1:08:43] Good example is the park out there. I'm not opposed to that. Matter of fact, I was on the board
[1:08:48] started with it. Okay, but my point with that is very simply we need to set priorities and we can't have
[1:08:57] you can't set priorities and say this is the biggest priorities, second biggest whatever, and then
[1:09:03] have something jump in and out of it. If you do that you're breaking that whole continuity of what you're planning.
[1:09:10] I don't see the board doing that. Supposedly your planning isn't a future going to have a meeting to
[1:09:15] make that plan. What you need to come out of that meeting with are dates and sets and
[1:09:21] times and say here are number one priorities. There's number three priority. Here's number
[1:09:27] five priority. So you do it in that order so that I as a taxpayer I'm going to come out of
[1:09:33] that saying I know that this cost is going to be there at that particular time. If you don't do that
[1:09:40] You're going to run in conflict with the school district and everybody else at once to act
[1:09:45] dollars.
[1:09:47] In addition to that, you need to find out what those cost factors when you set those priorities
[1:09:51] in general cost factor.
[1:09:54] I'll give you an example of what I'm thinking about as a former board member, I would be looking
[1:10:00] at the park that we approved for $3.5 million dollars is only a start.
[1:10:08] Next thing you got to know is you have to have plumbing, you have to have water, you have to have a side walk, you have to have.
[1:10:15] Well, that was included in the 3 million cherry.
[1:10:17] Our cost, the well, the well in the septic are included in the 3 million.
[1:10:22] That shelter does not cost 3 million.
[1:10:25] But my point with the whole thing is there are other costs.
[1:10:28] Always cost. Oh, yeah. Oh, we're willing.
[1:10:31] When you make that first agreement, then all of a sudden that commitment actually adds more dollars later.
[1:10:39] One way or another is going to add more dollars later, okay?
[1:10:43] My point with that is when you set those priorities, you know where that is.
[1:10:49] I don't see that happening yet.
[1:10:51] I hope that the meetings you have coming up are going to be set up to do that, okay?
[1:10:58] Well, as you know, lowly and I were not on the board when that project was approved, and
[1:11:06] we have spent a lot of time trying to manage some of the project's paid by part funds.
[1:11:17] So that is from the impact fees, so that's not the taxpayer general fund that we look at.
[1:11:26] But I think my point is right now, we have been trying to manage controlling the property
[1:11:38] text increases while dealing with what has already been committed to that happened before
[1:11:46] we got there without upsetting the apple cart and managing a project for here that we can
[1:11:58] phase in because there is no way that we could do this whole project at once. And if you are
[1:12:07] following the meetings, what we did this last time, we have even started to phase in some of the
[1:12:16] borrowing because right now the borrowing and the debt,
[1:12:26] it is down, we've done so much and probably
[1:12:31] the last almost two years now, but we still have a little bit to go so we're trying to get
[1:12:40] through the next year, we got the school referendum.
[1:12:46] So you can please tell all the people, because I cannot tell you how many people have told
[1:12:52] my husband that they are very upset that I raised the taxes for the school.
[1:12:57] And he says, Kathy did not vote on that.
[1:13:01] That is the school board who proved that, not Kathy.
[1:13:05] So, we've kept that, we've been trying to keep that in mind as well, that we're not hitting
[1:13:14] taxpayers from all of all the groups at once.
[1:13:21] We, I think, probably, lower what agree, it's been, it's been a very difficult and sometimes
[1:13:31] contentious process because there's been a lot of planning that has gone on and I admit
[1:13:38] that and I know sometimes I think administration gets frustrated because all this effort
[1:13:44] has gone in but the money has to follow and our top priority for me has been respecting the
[1:13:55] taxpayers pocketbook and still accomplishing the things. That's why we started this whole
[1:14:01] process out with what needs to be done. And that's how we got the boiler situation fixed.
[1:14:10] We proved that right away. We got the rough schedule to get fixed. There were a couple
[1:14:17] things over at the library that had to be fixed. So we did those, but it's going to be
[1:14:25] a slow process, probably. It's not going to be like next year, the senior area center area
[1:14:33] will be done. It's going to take a while, but I will tell you that it is on the top of everyone's
[1:14:43] And as far as possible, I mean, the parks planning will continue.
[1:14:49] There was just a meeting last night for improvements to Arnold Larson and William McFarlane.
[1:14:58] So those that planning continue.
[1:15:01] One thing that I've been trying to do on the board, because right now, the planning seems to happen kind of in silos, like everyone has their thing, you know, if they plan.
[1:15:14] And then all of us, it comes together and all these things cannot happen at the same time.
[1:15:23] So you're exactly right, Jerry.
[1:15:26] Yes.
[1:15:26] The senior center is at the top.
[1:15:31] It's on everyone's mind.
[1:15:34] We all know that the current situation, we have an opportunity here.
[1:15:40] We have empty spaces here.
[1:15:42] So we have a great opportunity to do this work, so now what, you know, the community park is a big investment and it will not even be operational until the spring season.
[1:16:03] It was supposed to be operational this fall, but because of delays, it's not even going to be operational to this spring.
[1:16:12] In the meantime, the county is redoing AB.
[1:16:18] So there's been a big, there's been, there was a big meeting with Dean County the other night about the improvements to how we're going to get the kids there safely.
[1:16:33] because now especially when I first brought it up that's probably two summers
[1:16:40] ago now when I was at on the board I brought up the safety issue of the kids
[1:16:47] getting out to the park and I don't think people really thought the kids would
[1:16:53] ride their bicycles out there well now they have e-scooters and e-bikes and what
[1:16:58] each stuff they're writing on. So they will be out there. They will be going down,
[1:17:04] single-co, they will be on AB. So now we're planning on how we can safely get those kids there.
[1:17:14] So yeah, the board has right now a lot on their plate. I mean, there are a lot of
[1:17:20] things happening, but I promise you that the senior seniors are at their top of my mind at least and I believe me if I think we're getting off track, I have no problem expressing my opinion.
[1:17:39] Well, thank you, and I agree both Kathy and Jerry. I appreciate that for our
[1:17:45] ties and it's important. And there's one item I was left out, and that's a
[1:17:51] theoretical road. That's a big ticket item, too. And that's where the big
[1:17:56] improvement should be to get people safely out to the park. But that has to happen.
[1:18:02] So that, you know, I have a priori. We don't have an option as to when to do it.
[1:18:07] because you're going to work that in conjunction with Madison because they only have the road.
[1:18:16] So, not as much as what you think anymore, Jerry, because we've got both sides now going down to the interstate.
[1:18:24] Well, part of it, but there's part of it still Madison.
[1:18:28] Yeah, that's from the interstate bridge to A.B.
[1:18:32] So, it's still, you have to work it out with one of those.
[1:18:37] But that will happen.
[1:18:39] You know, I'm sure we just have to keep grinding away on it,
[1:18:46] because time is of the essence of my opinion.
[1:18:50] Some of these projects.
[1:18:54] So, yeah.
[1:18:55] So, that your explanation of what's been going on Kathy is really enlightening and helpful.
[1:19:00] Thank you.
[1:19:01] I think what you mentioned about the silo planning,
[1:19:03] you know, different areas. One thing that, as a citizen, I don't think I fully understand,
[1:19:09] you had mentioned that the parks development, I haven't gone to the parks meetings
[1:19:12] all admit, but some of what's going on with like community park development, does that fall
[1:19:19] under like in general development, like when developers propose new developments that a certain
[1:19:25] proportion, they have to provide some funding towards the parks impact fee rate that gets
[1:19:33] So, some of that isn't coming directly to the taxpayer, then.
[1:19:38] Right, some of it is from both park and park fees.
[1:19:41] Because I think in general, just from some conversations I've had with other community members,
[1:19:48] like all of us in that building pops up out on AB.
[1:19:51] How did that happen? How much did that cost?
[1:19:54] Again, we're talking about things that are maybe a little more visible.
[1:19:57] So again, just understanding those, the logistics and the length of time that all that's been planned and where the funding comes from.
[1:20:06] I'll be four or five years ago.
[1:20:08] I mean, I heard about it a while ago.
[1:20:11] And all of a sudden, there it is because it's been in the works for a while.
[1:20:17] But to understand where the money comes from.
[1:20:18] But the dimension of the silo planning, that's where Jerry's prioritizing process.
[1:20:24] you know to know that the village board already has hopefully has some priorities so that
[1:20:29] when this committee group or that committee group comes with their plans that they're put
[1:20:34] into their place.
[1:20:37] What last question?
[1:20:39] This goes to you probably in reference to space when you are having to schedule not able to
[1:20:48] and particularly classes, and yet we have facilities here that has availability square
[1:20:55] footage. I think of the bank, that we own, I understand. And if we own that wire, why can't
[1:21:02] we hold classes that doubt? You know, I think of the training room for the police. That's
[1:21:09] a fairly good sized room, so you could have 10, 12 people in that room or space. I'm wondering
[1:21:15] why we can't use those spaces or why we don't.
[1:21:18] So we do use the training room.
[1:21:20] No, the police training.
[1:21:22] Oh, the police room.
[1:21:23] So that room is not really intended for the public.
[1:21:28] It's kind of like a lab runth back there.
[1:21:31] So it's not ideal right now how it is set up.
[1:21:35] I think I don't know the story with the bank.
[1:21:40] And that's also off site.
[1:21:42] So that's not something that I would be super intrigued and moving towards just because that would be difficult for us from a staffing perspective to be off-site with some of our programs, but I don't know.
[1:21:56] I'd like to have a program of 10, 12 people, students coming in for the exercise group, it seems to me like that would be an ideal space because there's parking availability and so on.
[1:22:10] One of the things also that's in the strategic implementation plan is property inventory of the properties that are owned by the village and with the intention that we should start looking at selling some of those properties and there's an interest in selling that being property.
[1:22:37] So, at one point when the big construction was going to happen here, there was the idea
[1:22:48] that staff would get moved into the bank while this was happening.
[1:22:53] Now, staff is staying in here as the phases are done.
[1:22:58] But, yeah, you were not the first person to ask about if we can sell them being.
[1:23:04] and having some activity going in that space would be a lot better than letting it sit.
[1:23:11] And that the mice and rats do their thing, but if you have people coming in and going out, that will happen.
[1:23:19] It just seems to me like it's a better use. Just a fight.
[1:23:23] And, you know, it's got those drive-thru's, is that?
[1:23:27] I mean, is there something we could think of that would be useful for, like elderly people
[1:23:34] crossing cars have been parked under there, I don't know what they're doing under there bar, but
[1:23:39] I think, at this point, because let's just be honest, we're looking for money wherever we can
[1:23:52] savings wherever we can if we could sell that building. I think that would help
[1:23:59] everybody. Or would that money go to the senior center?
[1:24:06] She's ready to earmark everything. I want to stay in this. I want to stay here, you know, I've got a
[1:24:13] little grandchild now and you know I'd like to stay here but I need I need more. I need more
[1:24:19] stimulation stay here and well I pay chance I understand that we all have to keep in mind
[1:24:27] right now on the other hand I've been hearing we we are pricing out our seniors yeah
[1:24:36] because so the balance is how can we not price out our seniors but still have some of the
[1:24:47] things that they would like available to them, it will not be everything.
[1:24:55] I can tell you that right now, it's not going to be every type of class that has been
[1:25:00] suggested, it can't, we don't have the money, we don't, did we need new soccer fields?
[1:25:08] I, you know, Barb, the decision was made, the decision was made and by the time
[1:25:16] level that I got on there, I think when we asked about it, it was passed the point of no return
[1:25:26] because the investment was already there and to just scrap it would have been like throwing money away.
[1:25:37] So you just head to
[1:25:41] Believe me if you go back and watch that meaning where the approval was made you will see me struggling
[1:25:47] To make a decision on it and I maybe there was good reason. I don't know and I don't know and I don't know
[1:25:53] Well, the reason is you know, they want to make money off of it
[1:25:57] So they will you know, there's tournaments that are going to be happening out there
[1:26:02] There's a rental the the shelter will be
[1:26:06] rented to people so they're looking as that is the income source. The cross
[1:26:12] country will be out there. The tournaments for that will be out there. These are
[1:26:20] all things that, you know, we're in the works way before I got. And we now we're
[1:26:28] making lemonade, a lot of love. So, Diane, just a perspective being another small suburb
[1:26:40] that's surrounded by these big cities. We get requests as well of like, why can't Manona have
[1:26:49] a lone closet in this and this and this and this, we are at a tiny little community of 8,000.
[1:26:56] That's our tax base, but people who see the medicines, the one at keys, the fish birds, the
[1:27:02] verona, they want to see that in their community. But the tax base is still 8,000 people.
[1:27:10] So it's a tough perspective, but you like the small town feel, but it's like you expect
[1:27:18] the big city benefits and that's just a real struggle and I think we try to offer everything
[1:27:26] we can but just a reminder that it's on a small number of taxpayers.
[1:27:32] And I think the more engagement we get with seniors coming and having these conversations
[1:27:37] I think that will build kind of awareness understanding from both our board members as well
[1:27:44] the community members of the reality of the situation and what we can do creatively with it.
[1:27:50] I do feel like it is important for people to advocate and engage so that they understand what the story is.
[1:27:57] Thank you, Diane. Kathy.
[1:27:59] And I'd just like to add a shout out to some of the things that we already have going on.
[1:28:02] I mean, I've been applauding Katie and her staff
[1:28:07] for the expansion of, you know,
[1:28:10] variety of programming offered through our senior center,
[1:28:13] making the most with what we have.
[1:28:17] And then recently I was over at the high school a couple of times.
[1:28:19] And again, we don't have children in school anymore,
[1:28:21] so we don't go over there a lot,
[1:28:22] but I was went to the Performing Arts Center
[1:28:24] for a couple of things.
[1:28:26] And on the bulletin board by the swimming pool,
[1:28:28] Amrap has, and you can see this online too,
[1:28:31] the different classes and programming that they have available for everybody in the community.
[1:28:37] It's not it's the young, you know, the toddlers up to the seniors and they have, you know,
[1:28:42] water-based exercises. They have pickleball classes in yoga and tai chi and crafts.
[1:28:48] And I mean, it just goes on and on. It was a page with two columns of activities.
[1:28:53] And so our taxes, they have a staff of three, I think, doing that stuff, creating.
[1:28:59] And I was just like amazed, I thought I haven't, I haven't felt like I personally needed
[1:29:05] to be tuned into it.
[1:29:06] But you know, if you're looking for things to do, there's just no end to what currently with
[1:29:12] our staff at the school and the community are available in the community.
[1:29:16] And the library has a library, oh yes, all programming, I mean, there are so many activities.
[1:29:24] One thing is that, like if you look at the, we get the leader independent and McFarlane
[1:29:28] And I still struggle a little bit, because we're such a great community, but our footprint
[1:29:33] in the McFarlane in that paper is relatively small compared to why the moon lake
[1:29:38] mills with Cambridge.
[1:29:39] I'm like, you know, with the heck, and it's just because of the reporting.
[1:29:43] So the only thing that hardly comes up will be the library activities under events in
[1:29:48] McFarlane, you know, it's all library library.
[1:29:50] It's great.
[1:29:51] But I just think, where did Amber have go and where does, you know, it's, yeah, so anyway.
[1:29:57] I'm very impressed with what we have going on.
[1:30:00] And I just think that pursuing the best utilization of the space over time in the next year to two years will be excellent.
[1:30:09] Okay, very good discussion, I think, and we'll just continue the week forward.
[1:30:19] So, okay, schedule next meeting, Wednesday's December 16th, 2026, 830 is our motion to adjourn.
[1:30:32] I have so much to it.
[1:30:33] How second?
[1:30:34] Motion made in second to adjourn, we're adjourned.
[1:30:37] Thank you everybody.
[1:30:39] We'll see you in September.